They Speak of Destiny
by Forest Archer
Summary: Until you came to Camelot, you'd never thought of destiny. Set during 'The Dragon's Call'.


The witch raises the knife, while all the room is silent. You alone see what she is doing, you alone have the power to change the future that is so close to occuring. Yet you are frozen in your place, and for a terrible moment that seems to last forever you do not know what to do.

Already you dislike this young prince; you look at him and feel anger stir in your heart. He has the world at his feet and chooses to crush it with each step he takes. His arrogance blinds him to the good around him, and to the faults within himself. You could quite easily do nothing, for what could anyone expect you to do? You are a commoner, and he has made it plain enough just what he thinks of you. When they all see him dead there, no one will lay the blame on you.

But there is more to him, you know that already. Even you can see beyond the pretensions to the possibilities that lie within him, and you can already guess at what he might be.

He is an idea, a dream, an abstraction of glories that could come to be; he is everything you ever hoped anyone could be and there is so much he could do. He is nothing now, but one day he will be everything. One day, he will be a legend.

Will you die for him?

Will you die for what someone has decided is his destiny?

You don't know much about destiny. You never thought you would share this world; this world of kings and princes, wars and assasinations, intrigue and love. You never expected to be anything more than a farm boy, and you never wanted anything more than that. All you know now is that you wouldn't go back.

Is that what destiny is? Realising what you want, and what the world needs? The world needs him, of that you can be sure. Maybe that is his destiny, then; to be what the world needs him to be. Sometimes you look at him and realise that that might not be what he wants. Is destiny to do the thing you do not want to do? If that is true, maybe it really is your destiny to die for him.

You wouldn't want to give up your life for what he is now. Spoiled, arrogant and unkind; filled with his knightly ideals of chivalry and honour but not upholding them nearly as nobly as he thinks. But to give up your life for what he may yet come to be? He shows a mercy that his father does not, and sometimes you think for a moment you see in him the kind of man you've always wanted to be. Sometimes it seems that, if he's given the chance, he could be a genuine hero.

He certainly cares about his people. Their suffering is his, as it is not his father's, and in this there is true nobility. He would risk his life for them, and that alone makes you realise. You should risk your life for his. Because despite yourself, you are beginning to care about him too, and you know you would regret it forever if you did nothing.

It will not change anything, you know that. No one will know that it was you who saved him, because to tell them how you did it would be to end your own life. Even if he did know it probably wouldn't matter, because that's just the way he is. But you will know. In days to come when the world prospers, you will know that this is because of you. Without you, all would have been for nothing.

And that's enough. Yes, you realise; it is enough to discover in yourself the same kindess and goodness of spirit that he so often tries to pretend he does not have. You are more like him than he would ever want to think, but that is no bad thing for either one of you.

You would die for him. There was never really any question that you will risk your own life again and again to protect his, and let him think that he is the only hero. He needs you, but more surprisingly you realise that you need him too. If there is such a thing as destiny, then yours is linked with his. And you won't fight it; indeed, already you are beginning to embrace it. This is the life you want. Every day there is a new threat, a new danger, and you never know if you will live to see the next dawn, or what that dawn will bring.

You wouldn't change it for the world.

So you move. You stop the witch, and you save his life. And you do not regret it.


End file.
